Essential Social Media Marketing Executive Interview Questions & Answers:

1. What social media tools do you use?

Here you will need to drop some names. It's important you know how to use one or more Social Media Management platforms such as HootSuite, SproutSocial or TweetDeck. Be prepared to explain why you use them and what features you like from one or the other.

2. Explain what are some of the best practices on Twitter?

Always use hashtags and mentions! Doing this will mean more people see your tweets and retweet. Some of these people might have big followings or clout that will benefit your company. Twitter is a great tool for conversing with customers so make sure to reply to their tweets as much as you can. Use hashtags to connect the conversation with other conversations in related topics.

3. How can social media help create value for SEO?

SEO skills are important to have when you are working with social media. Talk about your SEO strategies, the tools you use and the way you measure and analyze the results.
Google Analytics is a must here. Also, provide examples and be prepared to be tested by the recruiter.

4. Tell me what are your favorite social media blogs?

This is another question where there is no right answer. Be prepared to explain why you picked your sites though. If you don't follow any blogs, try browsing a few so you'll at least be prepared for this question.

5. Do you know what is Facebook EdgeRank? Why does it matters?

Facebook EdgeRank is an algorithm that Facebook uses to determine what articles should be displayed in a user's News Feed. Facebook Edge mark matters because

☛ About 96% of fans don't return to Brand's Facebook Page after initial engagement
☛ Your post is more likely to reach your fans in the newsfeed than your page
☛ About 27% of all time spent on Facebook is spent looking at news feed

6. Ask them what their first goals would be?

If your candidate starts talking about attracting ‘X' number of Facebook likes or ‘Y' number of Twitter followers, stop them and ask:

How will they build an audience of in-market fans?
How do they plan to engage with that specific audience?
They might try to blind you with numbers but a small, switched-on and engaged audience offers you much more value than a bunch of fans/followers from outside your market area.

7. Tell me which social media experts and/or influencers do you follow?

You should be fine on this one as long as you have something to say. Employees are not likely to judge your decisions. Look at our article on 5 Social Media Experts You Should be Following if you're drawing a blank and want suggestions! You can also check out another article that gives Facebook-specific advice.

8. Ask them to tell you a story?

I've saved the coolest, most enjoyable question for last. If your candidate has the ability to tell a compelling story, that will give you a huge advantage in all levels of social media and content marketing.

We all connect via stories. Stories paint pictures in customers' minds and evoke emotions that foster trust and credibility. Your candidate must be able to illustrate, through stories, why people buy from you rather than your competitor.

9. Explain me which social media brand strategy has inspired you lately and why?

Talk about why the strategy inspired you but, more importantly, also detail how you would love to create an original strategy of the same caliber. Explain how you would do this and implement it in the context of the job you're interviewing for.

10. Which social media channels do you recommend for our business?

Make sure you study the business you're interviewing with, think about their target audience, industry they work in and possible strategies they could follow and then compare it to what each social network offers. You'll have no problem to tackle this question and other similar ones if you have done your homework and informed yourself about the business/brand beforehand.